News & Events

Just wanted to remind everybody that it is Memorial Week! Discgolfplanet.tv has live coverage of the 2013 Memorial Tournament from today until Saturday. Just head on over to Discgolfplanet.tv to tune in and enjoy watching the best in the world play the first major National Tour event kicking off the 2013 disc golf season!

Like this:

Hey guys and gals, just thought I would do a quick post to introduce myself and what I hope to bring to the Dogleg community.

My name is Justin, I’m 27 and currently live in Seagrove, NC with my wife and Hoover my 5 year old Lab/Coonhound mix. I’m currently a photojournalism student with a concentration in sports photography and hope to translate that to bringing the sport of disc golf to the masses through photos. Outside of disc golf my interests pretty much peg me as a nerd, LOL! I’m a huge music fan, mainly heavy metal, but do enjoy music as a whole to a degree. My favorite bands include: Machine Head, Pantera, Amon Amarth, Battlecross and Testament, but the list is quite more extensive. I’m a big tech guy, specifically custom PC builds. I’ve built the last 4 PC’s my wife and I have owned and recently started getting into case modding as well. Art is another big passion of mine. I do everything from pencil drawings to acrylic and spray painting, and yes I do disc golf related work. One project I have going at the moment is trying to figure out a way to do LED paintings that can light up!

I was introduced to disc golf last summer by a buddy of mine, Dex, who I’ve known all my life. He called me up one day and asked me to come down to the park near his house and try it out. I had heard of disc golf before, but never gave it much thought as a sport that would interest me. I am a former baseball and football player used to really challenging sport; I just never thought of disc golf as something I’d enjoy. Well, I get down to the park and my buddy is out there with a bag full of discs. He explains the rules to me, shows me the basics of a BH throw and tells me to let it rip. The disc went 50 ft then hard left into a tree. Needless to say, as a former athlete, I was less than pleased when he put his shot under the basket 245 ft away. I’m not one to give up easily, but looked at Dex while just shaking my head. Dex has been playing for a few years, told me I just had to get the mechanics of the throw down first and that distance would come with playing/practice. The next hole was almost the same story, I threw a disc maybe 75 ft this time, but Dex again parked it at 300 ft. This went on for another 5 or 6 holes and I became increasingly frustrated. That’s when it clicks in Dex’s head, since I’m a former Shortstop and 2nd baseman, maybe I would have better results from a FH throw. He shows it to me, hands me a higher speed/more stable driver and says rip it like you would if you were gunning out a runner at first. It clicked. I put that muscle memory to work, put all I had into the throw and let it rip down the fairway. The disc was parked 5 ft from the basket 315 ft away, my jaw dropped. Watching a disc I had thrown sail that far, that fast, it was like a rocket leaving my hand, and I was hooked.

Since that moment I’ve dedicated my game to driving FH. I drive FH for distance, control, as well as anhyzer now. I will throw close to 95% of my drives FH and probably 80% of my upshots. The FH drive just feels so natural and smooth to me. I seem to generate much more power and snap with far less effort throwing FH as well, but the best thing about it is that is doesn’t hurt my shoulder like a BH drive does. My baseball career ended in High School when I tore my labrum on both the front and back of my shoulder, my family couldn’t afford the surgery to fix it, and they are still torn now. This causes my shoulder to pop out of socket when exerted too much.

Those are the main reasons I’ve come to Dogleg. I want to spread the knowledge I’ve gained over the past year about driving FH and playing disc golf with injuries. I found Dogleg through Twitter and immediately emailed JT when I saw I could join and help contribute. I don’t see a lot of information out there right now about FH driving and disc selection. I hope to help anybody that I can with disc reviews from a FH player’s perspective and any throwing tips I can give. I also want to share what I’ve learned over the last 10 years about conditioning and strengthening joint injuries for recovery, preventive methods and how to translate that into a routine to help with both distance to your drives and overall health.

I would also like to share any disc golf related pieces of art or projects I work on if anybody is interested in seeing them.

I look forward to contributing and talking with the Dogleg community, as well as spreading the word about Dogleg around the NC disc golf community!

Like this:

This past Friday, Dogleg Disc Golf made it again ad a feature on Go Ham Disc Golf’s “This Week in Disc Golf (TWIDG)”!

Fellow Dogleg contributor, Jeremiah, had two posts this week that made Go Ham’s weekly video. The first of the two was Jeremiah’s disc review of the new Prodigy D1 and D4. The second featured Dogleg post last week was the Disc Golf Addict–a pretty funny list you should check out.

Grip and Rip DGC began as an outcropping from the Dogleg crew’s drive to bring another course to our hometown of Jasper, AL. The new course is still being decided by the local city council, but they are pretty close to making a final decision. When researching all the details for starting a club, I found the PDGA to have a helpful How-to guide.

We cut our teeth with Discraft’s annual Ace Race tournament, which proved to be a valuable learning experience. Skills learned included: managing costs, gathering sponsorship’s, taking pre-registration monies, registering with the local park, setting up the course for tourney play and coordinating schedules with football season (if you are not from the Southeast, then you wouldn’t understand =)).

With all this Ace Race tournament director experience, I decided to take the PDGA’s Officials Exam to better understand the rules for sanctioned play. PDGA Rules – The rules are interpretative in some cases. I am more of a casual player, so I don’t necessarily agree with all the tedious rules (just my preference). The 10 official’s exam can be taken an unlimited amount of times and is only $10, which is good for 3 years. The PDGA now has a Pre-Register Tool that allows tournament directors to collect payment online. It does cost $2-3 for the player to use, but the players list updates in real-time.

I started building a GnR website with a forum to house all of the club’s activities. This proved to be more complicated than anticipated; so we setup a Facebook group under “Grip and Rip Disc Golf”. The events section is extremely helpful, since it allows local players to accept the tourney invite. The real-time feedback allows for us to judge the expected attendance ahead of tourney day.

Contrary to popular belief, tournaments are time-consuming to run, and yield little profit for the club. However, they are beneficial in growing the sport. Without groups of disc golfers coming together with similar interests, new parks wouldn’t be built and existing parks wouldn’t be improved. Just in the Birmingham metro alone, there are 7 new parks coming online in 2013! I really hope we can continue growing this beautiful sport.

Greetings, all! It is time for the unveiling of what could arguably be the internet’s most rad disc golf video ever produced. No, I’m not just saying that because I produced it (OK, I admit — it might be because of that).

I had the opportunity to get some great footage of Destin, JT and me playing at Wills Park in Alpharetta, GA this weekend. The video, entitled “Rules of Disc Golf,” highlights what happened during about an hour-and-a-half round of play, all while informing what we feel will help you get the best out of your experience by following these simple rules.

The video was produced the next day, and within four hours of production, I had written and recorded a rock groove for the background soundtrack, fully organized the clips, and exported the clip sequence that was ready for upload. Talk about a productive weekend, right?? 🙂

We had a blast making it, and we hope you have a blast watching it. Enjoy!

The disc golf community received lots of exciting news last December. Clearly, as I addressed in my earlier posts, the discopalypse and announcement of Prodigy Disc Golf stirred up tons of gossip. Dynamic Discs released its new line of discs. But the announcement that has the greatest potential to impact the sport went unnoticed in comparison. On December 21, PDGA Executive Director Brian Graham announced that the PDGA would be joining with two other sports organizations to create the Emerging Sports Network.

The purpose of the ESN, according to its website, www.emergingsports.info, is to recognize and celebrate the “most innovative, exciting, and competitive sporting endeavors available today. Though each of these sports might not have millions of fans and dollars to support their play, they do not lack the passion or the skills necessary to create great broadcasting.” The other two organizations pairing with the PDGA to make up the ESN are the Upstate Watercraft Promotions-International Jet Sports Boating Association (UWP-IJSBA) National Tour and the Extreme Volleyball Professionals (EVP) Tour. Before the PDGA became involved, the two sports had partnered together to form the Beach Sports Network, which has now evolved into the ESN.

As a partner for the ESN, the PDGA will produce four 30 minute video segments this year. The first of the four disc golf episodes will cover the Memorial Championship in Scottsdale and Fountain Hills, AZ at the beginning of March. Between the three sports, 20 episodes will be created, then distributed by Comcast or another sports network. These episodes have the potential to be picked up by networks all across the country and to be seen by 66 million households.

The group who owns the rights to the ESN website and who will provide key help in producing the first disc golf shows for television is the Terra Firma Media Group, who specializes in strategic communications and “helping your company reach its audience.” Terra Firma already has a big role in disc golf. They run DiscGolfPlanet.tv and their clients include the USDGC, the Japan Open, Innova, Red Bull, and Kimberly-Clark.

I expect that partnering with the UWP-IJSBA and EVP Tours will have several, large effects on disc golf in the next couple of years. The most direct effect will be that disc golf will be more well known, and therefore, more people will want to play. This could eventually lead to more course installations and cooperation from Parks and Rec-type groups.

Although I do not see this until next year or later, I believe that if the ESN is successful, the PDGA will collaborate with the UWP-IJSBA and EVP to organize a tour made up of mega-events where all three sports are represented. Graham said in his announcement on Disc Golf Talk Radio that he hoped to have one of these events in the future, but I expect that there will be several if the ESN is a successful alliance. The other two sports have already synced up the time and place of several of their major tour events for the 2013 season, and this trend could easily transfer to include disc golf events as well.

These large events would put disc golf in a new position. They will attract better bids from Convention and Visitors Bureaus, which would cut costs for tournament hosting. They will also make tournaments more appealing for sponsors that apply to all three sports–like Nike or Gatorade. We can also expect that the cities that will host these big events will be on beaches, so they can accommodate jet ski racing and beach volleyball. Cities like Kansas City, who hosted the 2009 Pro and Am World Championships and is home to the Kansas City Wide Open (a national tour event), will be less likely to host these giant events. Large cities in coastal states will have a higher chance of hosting disc golf’s biggest events.

I want to start by thanking DiscGolfStation.com for considering us as a top disc golf blog nominee. It’s such an honor to be chosen in the Top 5! To read the full details, definitely check out the results here: Top Disc Golf Blog Winners! Be sure to “Like” Disc Golf Station on Facebook!

Next, I want to thank all of our fellow Dogleg contributors—you guys help made this achievement possible! And of course, I could never forget our fan base and support of our friends.

A Message from JT:

Here at DoglegDiscGolf.com, we strive to be different. Our goal is to deliver fresh content in a way that can relate to our audience unlike any other disc golf out there. We’re not pros. We’re just regular guys and gals that freakin’ love disc golf. We try to go extra lengths to explain topics, cover events and write a more in-depth review on things like disc golf apps. If we can’t relate and connect to our audience on a personal level, we’ve missed the point. We’re not here for money. We’re here simply because we love what we do. Keep slingin’!

This past year, I’ve been working with Justin Littrell of Disc Golf Birmingham on designing basket wrap graphics for the new Inverness Disc Golf Course (InDiG0) in Hoover, AL. These 70″x4″ vinyl sticker wraps that would go on all 18 of their Innova DISCatcher® Pro baskets plus the practice basket.

As of about a month ago, they finally have them installed and thanks to Jasper buddy, Dylan, for taking this photo for us!

I think they turned out pretty sharp! What do you think?

If you’re interested in a vinyl sticker design for the baskets of your local course, let me know! Email me at doglegdg@gmail.com. You can check out more of my design+art at www.jthamman.com.

This morning on Go Ham Disc Golf’s weekly YouTube segment, “This Week in Disc Golf”, DoglegDiscGolf.com received another plug! This time it was for Jeremiah’s post on Night Rounds – Reviews on glow sticks, LED Lights, and Glow plastic. Check it out at about the 2:35 mark. If you’re into night disc golf, you will definitely want to check out Jeremiah’s post. Enjoy!

Great post Jeremiah by the way and thanks again to Go Ham Disc Golf for choosing another one of our articles to feature. Be sure to follow Big John on Twitter @GoHamDiscGolf and his YouTube channel at Go Ham Disc Golf!

After Saturday’s windy experience and lack of elevation at Arvada’s Johnny Roberts DGC, I was a tad bitter with my Colorado disc golfing thus far. First of all, I thought Denver was mountainous and had a lot more hills than it turned out to have. I expected Colorado disc golf courses to be filled with firs, spruces, and aspens, elevation changes, cool breeze and impeccable, breathtaking scenic views. Don’t get me wrong, now the Johnny Roberts course was indeed fun, but it was just not the scenic course I was hoping for. We needed to find a bigger, better course before this trip was over.

Then I remembered back a few weeks prior to our trip, North Colorado Disc Golf (@NoCoDG) tweeted us and mentioned that we needed to get up in the hills—that that’s where the bigger, better courses are. We researched that night and found out about Conifer Park at Beaver Ranch. The only problem?, it was about 45 min north of Denver and we had no car. After calling around town, we luckily found a car rental place that actually still had cars available. [There were several big events and conferences going on that same weekend, so it was hard to find any still available.] Locked it in for Sunday, check. Now we’re headed to the Mountains, boys!

Goodbye city. Hello Mountains.

Conifer Park at Beaver Ranch (Conifer, CO)
The whole drive up to Conifer was really nice. The Rockies—once off in the distance—were finally now getting closer and closer. Steeper inclines ahead as we winded up the hills leaving the city behind. The directions we had were horrible..or either it was that stupid GPS. Either way, once we got off the main road it felt like we drove in circles for a half hour trying to find one little road. I don’t know how many times it redirected us after we’d make a turn. The address on the GPS took us up one hill into this mountainside trailer park. Yea…don’t think there’s a disc golf course in this mess. “Heya Billy, 2 points if you ding one off da satellite dish into the plastic kiddie pool.” Yea..no. Ok after a different address confirmation, we’re back on track and finally get there. It’s already starting to look and feel like the “Colorado Disc Golf Experience” I was hoping for. Beaver Ranch is located down a long dirt road with a small dirt parking lot at the base. There to the side is a small cabin store-looking thing that reminded me of what you’d see atop a mountain while skiing. It is cool out, light breeze and the air is thin. Then you catch the subtle scent of the mountainous, evergreen air. Yes, this is it.

Some locals pull up about the same time we do and tell us Hole #1 is about a half mile from the parking lot.. Half a mile, seriously? Gees. That first time you know how it always seems like it takes forever? Well we walk and walk—crossing an overgrown, brush-filled creek. I’m talking thicket so thick, there could be bears hiding in there.

We get to #1’s teepad and the excitement and thrill level could not be any higher! This was intense. Hole #1 is straight uphill? Yes—with a very tight, heavily wooded fairway window staring right back at us. Hole #1 you’re basically teeing from ground level and throwing high and up into the mountain. Leaving no room for error, the first hole was a little intimidating. With the majority of us being from the Southeast, we’re not used to this level of drastic elevation change on the holes to follow.

There was a courtesy box and sign at the bottom of the wooden stairs leading up the fairway to basket #1. This was to put in your $3/per person (highly worth it) and grab a dated tag for the day’s round. After teeing off, the elevation change kicked in. I believe Tim was the only one that had a decent tee shot on this hole. On our next throws, we found ourselves fighting for a steady balance along the hill’s steep incline. I’m glad the day was cool, because with all the hiking/climbing we were about to endure, it could have been miserable.

Joe at Teebox #1

Joe Approach Shot on Hole #1

Basket #1 looking down fairway to #1 Teepad

The first four holes you’re playing your way up the mountain. So each hole the hike gets a bit more strenuous and the air gets thinner. Beautiful views of the trees and mountains off in the distance as you play. Tight cut lines surrounded by tall, thin pines and firs filled the landscape. Didn’t see any wildlife, but loved the nature sounds. I also did like how there was not a lot of small plant life around. This made it much easier to find your disc in the dirt or pine straw. Really the only thing you had to watch out for was if your disc became a roller and rolled off course…and down the hill. On Hole #10 I believe it was..we searched nearly a half hour for one of mine that skipped and rolled away. One of the zipline guides actually spotted it for us. Whew, did not want to lose that one. Oh and Yes, they had ziplines (next time I’m adding that to my list)!

Hole #2 Basket

JT on #4 Teebox

Joe on #5 Teebox

Needed a breather.

After the first 7 holes (1/3 of the way done), we needed a breather. Lots of walking, hiking on this treacherous hilly mountainside already. I’m glad we brought all of the water and snacks that we did. Come prepared if you play this course! Especially with this tight #8 (pic below) coming up, we needed to think about just how in fact we were going to pull off this next laser drive. It required roughly a 100+ft straight shot just to clear the tree line with literally less than a 15-ft window to work with. Here in the pic below, Jason’s eyeing the fairway leading up to the basket. Throw it soft to lay up and keep your line? or risk pinballing one through the trees and down the left side of the hill with a burner? Decisions. I’ve scored par on every hole up to this point and up by several strokes, so what do I have to lose? I’m going for it, son. Indeed did hit a tree or two, but would end up serving me well on this one.

Hole #8 Teebox and view of mountain from basket.

I managed to hang on at even par through the first 9, then I started to fall apart…as did everyone else. I would go on to bogey the next 6 in a row…ouch. The holes were getting longer and more difficult. We were feeling the burn from all the walking/hiking and arms were getting sore after the next handful of holes.

Jason about to ding the top of the #12 basket on a 310′ shot.

Basket #13…Anthill Mound. Unforgiving to say the least.

See the basket? Neither do we. But it’s in the midst of the Aspens in the back. #14 Approach Shot

I feel like we’ve been playing across the top of this mountain for hours. Isn’t it time the holes start making its downward spiral? Yep. Here goes. Hole #17 was a beast of a downward distance hole. This hole is some odd 430’+ long, but you’re pretty much teeing off from on top of the hill aiming to a downward basket. With a steep incline directly behind the pocketed basket, you could huck the hell out of your disc and not worry too much of overshooting the hole..As long as you angled it downhill. My goal, spike it in the hill behind the basket. Or at least hit it hard enough it would catch an edge and roll down to the pin. Check out the view from the teebox down to the basket.

JT on #17 Mountain Teebox to Downhill Basket. Seeyahhhhhhhhh. Bomb.

Tim bombing one at Hole #17. 435’+ to downhill hole.

Jason on #17 Teebox

Tim sinking a solid on #18.

Then the rain came. And it fell hard! With nowhere to go, we found slight shelter under some low-lying branches. The next few holes we played in the pouring rain. We were this close to the end—can’t stop now. Conifer Park is made up of “21” holes, but could not seem to find Hole #21. Hole #20 was a steep downhill hole with a heavily-wooded line to the basket. This hole you needed one to lay low and set down or your disc might be rolling all the way to the bottom off the mountain. There was one last teebox after Hole #20, but was not designated by a teesign. Could this be #21? It was long and far and required throwing over that overgrown, hellish creek I mentioned earlier. And the bad part about it? The creek lied maybe 50-ft in front of the basket. You either had to lay up before the creek, or bomb one hoping to land on the other side. We turned this into a CTP hole instead.

Course Recap:
All in all it was an excellent course with 21 beautiful holes. By far, the absolute BEST disc golf course I have played yet (yes, even topping Flyboys). Conifer Park at Beaver Ranch has the whole package. You’ve got the cool weather; the beautiful scenery; the mountains; the tall-standing thin trunked trees; challenging elevation…everything. This course is not for the beginner nor would I recommend for people out of shape. It’s rough. It demands lots of stamina, walking and hiking up steep terrain. Some holes have loose footing on the dirt and straw on the hillside. Bring LOTS of water/snacks. You’ll be out here for a few hours with just the amount of time to walk the entire course. It’s challenging and I loved every minute of it. I would catch myself taking in the scenery and snapping pics and missing some of the great shots we made. Ahhh if I just had some of those on film. No aces, but a few close ones. I love the outdoors, nature and I certainly love the mountains. This course made my “Colorado Disc Golf Experience”. It was everything that I imagined disc golf in Colorado to be like. I would’ve been highly disappointed to make it all the way out here from Georgia, and to have not gotten a chance to play something of this caliber.

Course Rating: 9.8/10

If you’re ever in the Denver area, you have to go play this course. Set aside a few hours to play..and of course, transportation to get there. Like I mentioned earlier, it is a ways out of the way but you will not regret it. No wonder it is rated a 4.6+/5 on DGCourseReview.com.

For a full look into our Denver Disc Golf Experience and over a hundred more pics, please check out our Dogleg Flickr page.

If you liked this post, don’t forget to “like” it and share below! Thanks guys!

We’ve got a few big things coming this November! We’ll kick it off today with Part II to our Denver Mancation Disc Golf trip, but first–a look at a few records we broke this past month.

In the year and half history of Dogleg Disc Golf, I’m pleased to announce we have broken a few of our personal records in blog stats this past month along with some other big achievements (for us)! Simply stated, October rocked!

BUSIEST DAY: – Tuesday, October 30, 2012Tuesday we set a new record in total blog views for a single day. We beat our previous record by ▲26+% set back in June 2011.

BUSIEST WEEK: – October 21-27, 2012
This past week was our busiest/most viewed week to date! We were up nearly ▲163+% from our normal average.

BUSIEST MONTH: – October 2012We had 800+ views this past month which surpassed our previous record by ▲50+% that was set back in July of this year.

Our “Average Views Per Day” have nearly doubled any other month to date.

Avery Jenkin’s and Dogleg
This past week Avery Jenkin’s himself tweeted us back with “Great Post!” and started following our blog after the publish of my Dogleg Loves Flying Dog post!

Go Ham Disc Golf and Dogleg
Also this week, Destin’s The Importance of a Fairway Driver post was featured on Go Ham Disc Golf’s YouTube Video. Around the 2:55 mark, Dogleg blog gets a plug! To catch a glimpse of the video review, click here! Dogleg getting exposure, yay!

We, here at Dogleg, greatly appreciate all of your positive feedback and support from our fans, family, friends and visitors that frequent our blog regularly. We look forward to an exciting month ahead and will continue to bring you guys quality material, reviews, pics and more only at DoglegDiscGolf.com!

Rattle those chains and “Blog the Dog”. We’re always looking for new contributors to the blog, young or old, newbie or pro. If you are interested, please shoot us an email at DoglegDG[at]gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @DoglegDiscGolf.

With the impending time change, night golf will be our only option if you work traditional hours. I have used mini glow sticks, flashing led lights, and glow discs as my test subjects for when day light savings goes into effect. The mini glow sticks work fairly well if disc is almost clear. Any slight tinting of the plastic will drastically reduce the visibility of the low powered mini glow sticks. I’ll give it a 2 on a scale of 5.

The flashing LED lights have been my staple for the past year. They are roughly $2.50 ea and give roughly 12 hours of use. These are the best option of the 3 test subjects. They are the heaviest of the addon options but they work well in all lighting scenarios (ie low sunlight, dusk, and completely dark). The newly redesign 2 alternating color lights that emit a combination of Blue/Red, Blue/Green, Red/Green colors for very easy identification from a far. Dynamic Discs seem to be the main supplier of this particular light setup. I barely notice the LED taped to my discs, but I don’t try any crazy hyzer flip shots at night, much. I highly recommend these particular models and give them an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5. I’ve dinged the 5.0 rating for the weight weenies out there. =)

Lastly I have tested the Innova CFR glow discs, Innova Pro Glow, and the GatewaySuper Glow plastics. one of the problems with glow plastic is that not all the names are available in glow. Innova probably has the largest selection of glow plastic but its still limited compared with their full product offering. The less translucent discs seem to hold a glow longer than the more translucent. That being said the Innova Pro and Gateway Super Glow outlasted the Innova CFR’s. All glow plastic seems best suited for near zero visibility. Any close street lamps will drastically reduce your night vision and the perceived glow from the discs. LED Blacklight flashlights tend to be the best option for charging this plastics in between rounds. I picked one up off ebay for around $13 shipped. My rating for the glow plastics is 3.5 out of 5 mainly due to the limited disc option in glow plastic and the fact most of my dg gets played around dusk and street lamps. All the above plastics are perfectly suited normal daytime use, as the Innova CFR plastic has excellent durability. Hope this helps someone!

Below is picture of a fresh charge on the 3 plastics in a completely dark room. They are visible for 10-15 minutes in a zero light area.

Yep, exciting! This morning our blog was featured on Go Ham Disc Golf’s weekly YouTube video segment called “This Week in Disc Golf News”. Big John from Go Ham Disc Golf features daily YouTube disc golf reviews, tips and giveaways. I don’t want to spoil too much of his video because I want you to check it out below!

Watch the whole thing through, but Dogleg is featured at about the 2:55 mark. The Dogleg post that Big John is referring to is the one written by our own Dogleg Destin on “The Importance of a Fairway Driver“.

Congrats to Destin and thanks again to Go Ham Disc Golf for choosing one of our articles to be a part of your segment. Be sure to follow Big John on Twitter @GoHamDiscGolf and his YouTube channel at Go Ham Disc Golf!

Another side trip we made on our Denver Mancation this past Labor Day, was a trip to the Flying Dog Denver Tap Room. It was located down a site street a good ways from our hotel. I remember there being construction down that street which eclipsed the view of their signage out front. One of the bartenders must have seen us walk past the main street and came out to holler at us if we were looking for Flying Dog. How did he know? We were very welcomed from the get-go.

The Flying Dog Tap Room environment was very friendly, even dog friendly. It’s a small hole-in-the-wall type of venue, but pretty unique and a chill, laid-back vibe. The bartenders gave us the first round on the house for being out-of-staters, heck yea! They were very thorough in describing their list of available beers on tap and bottle selection.
I’ve always like Flying Dog beer and especially their weird, twisted artwork by famed artist/illustrator Ralph Steadman. You might have heard that name as he’s best known as the illustrator of the works of Hunter S. Thompson. Being an artist and illustrator myself, I can really appreciate the uniqueness and detail he put into all of these label designs. I’ve collected a good bit of these Flying Dog bottles over the years. Here’s a the label for the Gonzo Imperial Porter–that was originally released in Hunter S. Thompson’s honor (wikipedia). It was a great, full-bodied heavy porter that we sampled while we were there.

Then we noticed what looked to be a disc hanging on the wall next to the bar. A little weird I thought at first, so I walked up to catch a better glimpse. It was indeed a disc, an Innova Star Destroyer signed by Avery Jenkins. Whaaaat, awesome!

Just another good reason to stop by the Flying Dog Tap Room next time you’re in the downtown Denver area!

“Due to construction of the greenway in Trussville, Carter Memorial Disc Golf Course and John LeMaster Memorial Disc Golf Course at Civitan Park are temporarily closed. The mayor requested that all baskets be removed from both parks. Disc Golf Birmingham will continue to work with the City of Trussville to ensure the re-installation of both courses.”

__________________
Clifford Smith
dgb communications coordinator

This is the official statement from Disc Golf Birmingham. There is more to the story here is the link to the related article http://www.trussvilletribune.com/?p=2074. The article states that there is an archeological site located at the park. The city had started building a walking path that was gonna run through the middle of both courses. Civitan dg course was gonna get a redesign to play safely around the walking path. The Carter course however was most likely not gonna be so lucky the proposed design was gonna run right down the middle of it and the mountain biking trails. A local disc golfer and one of the designers of the courses Joe Thacker is the one who found the archeological sight and informed the state about the find. The state of Alabama stepped in to stop construction on the walking path until a full study could be done. The mayor ordered the baskets removed to protect the site. The latest information is these courses are not coming back any time soon. Clifford Smith and Disc Golf Birmingham have stated that they are currently working with the city and Mayor of Trussville to build another course elsewhere. There are still open talks that one day these two awesome course will come back. There were a lot of emotions envolved so they are waiting on everyone to calm down to resume talks of when they may get reopened and what design they may be. Don’t expect the courses that are there to be exactly the same ever again however.

Share this:

Like this:

Discraft Ace Race at the North Jasper Course on Aug 11, 2012 with the players meeting starting at 9 AM and tee time @ 9:30 AMI am taking the $25 payment via cash or PaypalPaypal: Send payment to Jeremiahbret@gmail.com (please use Personal > Gift option) Include your name, email, and working telephone number.What: Discraft Ace Race (http://discgolfacerace.com/)
2 Rounds of 18 holes, one shot per hole… only aces count!
No prior experience of disc golf required, all experience levels welcomed (Instruction for new players will be available) First Place will receive a stack of discs!

For couples, BFFs, or family who will be participating, we have a doubles deal. For $35, two people can split the player pack with each person getting one disc to participate in the Ace Race.

Players all throw the same model disc: a brand new, never-seen-before Discraft prototype disc that is introduced each year especially for Ace Race. All 2011 participants received a player’s pack that included 2 Z line prototype Drivers, sunglasses, Mini, sticker and a metal water bottle….a $50 package for only $25!

Like this:

So I got to break away for the weekend and run up to Huntsville for the Rocket City Blast that covered Monte Sano, Mastin Lake, Brahan Springs, and Redstone Arsenal. It was a warm 95 degree weekend that proved to be somewhat taxing on my stamina. Nonetheless I did get to see some interesting disc golf accessories along the way.

The first two photos are of a homemade DG Caddy with built in cooler…. Very nice! This may turn into my summer project.

The 3rd photo however is California Joe’s version of a DG caddy from a re-purposed baby stroller. haha good call sir!

Like this:

Below may be a great chance for all of us to get together and play this month. Two days 4 courses over Memorial Day weekend in Huntsville, AL…. Tim this may be a good reason for you to come into town to “visit” the in laws. =)

The Arsenal will be part of the series! Let me know if you plan on making the trip.

The Rocket City Blast, hosted by the Rocket City Chain Gang, will be held on May 26th & 27th covering four courses. For your disc golf pleasure, the field will play Monte Sano, Brahan Springs, Mastin Lake, and Redstone Arsenal.

This event will be PDGA sanctioned as C-Tier for Pros & B-Tier for AMs with a minimum of 120% paid out to AMs.

Sponsorships will be in more detail later but, as a preliminary, hole sponsorship will be offered at each course for $25 each, which will include a personalized sign and a select disc. The sponsorship can be designated to your field of choice (pro, adv, int, ect). On a side note, if a title sponsor wishes to donate the required amount of money, then the sanctioning can bump to the next tier (ie if someone sponsors $500 to Pro, then it will become a B-tier).